Patient’s genes may decide Covid-19 severity: Study

A new study by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has found that genetic variants responsible for Covid-19 severity among Europeans may not play a role among South Asians. This finding has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

While it is unclear why some people face severe and adverse symptoms of Covid19, CCMB suggests that there are some variations in a specific DNA among such patients. This segment is present in 50 per cent of south Asians as compared to 16 per cent of Europeans.

A team of international scientists analysed the role of this DNA segment in determining Covid-19 outcomes among south Asians.

The study was directed by Dr Kumarasamy Thangaraj, director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, and chief scientist, CCMB, Hyderabad, and Prof Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

“We have compared infection and case fatality rates with South Asian genomic data over three different timelines during the pandemic. We have especially looked into a large number of populations from India and Bangladesh,” said Dr Thangaraj.

Team member Prajval Pratap Singh said, “Our result reiterates the unique genetic origin of South Asian populations. A dedicated genome-wide association study on south Asian Covid-19 patients is the need of the hour for us in the Asian sub-continent.”

The variations in the subcontinent will require a lot of mapping. This will necessitate a large number of centres across the country to be a part of the study.

The study suggests that the genetic variants correlated with Covid-19 outcomes differ significantly among caste and tribal populations of Bangladesh.